4Ts OF DIGITAL MARKETING OPERATIONS



a new marketing concept that meets the digital age!


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BY JOE GHANTOUS,
FOUNDER OF RIGHT SERVICE



Concept, Version 7.8 Last Updated on 13 March 2020



In March 1950, Willie Sutton, a prolific American bank robber, was asked by a news reporter about why during his 45-year criminal career he only stole banks. Willie simply answered, “Because that’s where the money is”.

When it comes to business the reason why you should focus on marketing is the same, that’s where the money is!

From that time, people missed the real meaning of marketing, they thought it was advertising, branding or promotion. Here below is a simple way to understand the meaning of marketing.

Imagine a conference is coming to town and you paint a sign saying “The big conference is coming this Saturday” that’s advertising.

If you put out the sign on the back of a truck and drive it into town that’s promotion.

If the truck was well decorated and the local newspaper writes about it, that’s publicity.

If the town citizens go to the conference, you show them how much knowledge they’ll have, explain to them how much fun they’ll have spending money at the conference booths, that’s sales.

And if you planned the whole thing, that’s marketing. Yup, it’s as simple as that – marketing is the strategy you use for getting your ideal target market to know you, like you and trust you enough to become a customer.

The modern marketing era started in 1960 when Jerome McCarthy came up with the “4P’s of Marketing” concept that sets up controllable variables to help brands influence their buyers’ response.

After 7 years, Philip Kotler, the father of modern marketing, had popularized this concept in his book & make it the marketing bible.​



ON JANUARY 9, 2017 I CAME UP WITH THE 4TS MARKETING CONCEPT



After more than 50 years from the introduction of the 4P's, I think the time has come to create a new marketing concept that meets the digital age & allows brands to simply manage & implement any digital marketing activity. On January 9, 2017, after 17 years of experience in digital marketing and studying the market requirements and analyzing the active digital marketing campaigns I have come up with “ The 4T’s of Digital Marketing Operations”, a Lebanese marketing concept that can be implemented internationally.


The 4T’s of Digital Marketing Operations is a new marketing concept that combines and derives benefits from its 4 factors of success (Tactics, Tools, Training & Tracking) to cost-effectively accomplish the operations’ desired goals and objectives.


The 4T's concept consists of builders & drivers solutions."Builders" solutions are designed to set the foundation for future success, lay the groundwork and create the necessary base on which you will develop your digital marketing knowledge, your brand online, differentiate it from competitors, and expand online reach and influence. (Builders solutions are represented in this concept by the ingredients of these 2 Ts: TACTICS & TRAINING).

Once the foundation is in place, it will be the time for "Drivers" solutions to make things happen, represented here by the components of the remaining Ts: TOOLS & TRACKING, but you should focus on "Builders" first. There are no more silos of marketing, everything is connected. Success depends on the integration of builders' and drivers' solutions.



THINK OF “DIGITAL MARKETING OPERATIONS” LIKE FLYING A PLANE!





Would a pilot take off without a flight plan, inspecting the plane and ensuring that it has enough fuel to make it to the final destination? (Tactics).


When taking off, would the pilot shut down the instrument panel and silence the radio while flight? (Tools).

Can anyone fly a plane without signing up for thorough Training?


When taking off, would the pilot turn off the radar? (Tracking).


Of course not, without a flight plan, training, radar & the instruments, especially the radio the pilot wouldn’t be able to detect any threat, know how the plane is functioning; and communicate about the flight plans. He could look out of the window (similar to what most digital marketers do today) but would not have enough scope of vision to keep the plane safe. Eventually, the pilot would be flying blind.


The same analogy shall be also followed nowadays in creating your effective digital marketing operations, representing the main pillars of “The 4T’s”.



This marketing concept is flexible and can be customized according to your business size:


1. If you have a small & medium-sized company that is operating without a digital marketing strategy, then "The 4t's of Digital Marketing Operations" is your solution.


2. If you are an individual with a free profession (Doctors, lawyers, Public Figures....) then “The 4t's of Personal Online Branding” fits you, especially that nowadays the personal branding becomes the company brand.


3. If you have or a member of a big company with running digital marketing operations then “The 4T's in Reverse” is good for you to benchmark & evaluate these operations.



EACH “T” ANSWERS A DIFFERENT QUESTION AND DENOTES A GROUP OF ACTIONS
ASSURING THE SUCCESS OF ANY DIGITAL MARKETING OPERATION.



TACTICS:



“How you should pave the road toward your ultimate goal?”


The first pillar of the “4Ts” representing the base part of any effective digital marketing operation. It is the “how” of everything (who, what, where, when & why), simply it is your digital marketing strategy.


TACTICS is made of the below ingredients:


• T: Target Audience: Define the kind of people you’ll be talking to, how to speak to them, where to find them, and what they want from your brand.


• A: Approach: Determine your main digital marketing operations’ goal with the date of its accomplishment, review your brand ideology and amplify your brand’s competitive advantage


• C: Communication Strategy: Set up the methods of your online activities including the way to share your brand's message with the public and whom to reach.


• T: Trajectory: Assign your customers’ buying journey to understand their purchasing behavior (before, during & after).


• I: Influence: Help you build influence either by searching for people who have a positive impact on your target audience or through other methods.


• C: Crisis Planning & Preparation: Preparing a crisis prevention plan to help your business stand against any online risk


• S: Situation Analysis: Review your brand's current situation, capabilities & activities to discover its strengths and overcome the weaknesses online.


A lot of marketers forget that marketing strategy is a living document that should be updated and reviewed constantly.


You can think of strategy renewals like pruning trees!


Pruning will lead trees to grow faster and produce better fruit. The same happens when renewing your strategy, it clears your mind and redirects energy toward real priorities.


Therefore your company’s digital marketing strategy should be renewed at least once a year as an average.

Version 7.8 Last Updated on 13 March 2020



TOOLS:



"Which tools you should use to reach your assigned objectives?"


The second “T” in the concept represents the needed digital marketing tools that can help you to achieve your company’s objectives.


Selecting the appropriate tools to use is not like Christmas shopping, you should take some time to narrow down which digital marketing tools would be most beneficial for your business to use, and that matches your exact business model and operational requirements.


There are numerous ways to boost your business performance online and hundreds upon hundreds of digital marketing tools to choose from, that are listed mainly under the below categories:

• Organic Social Media Tools

• Social Media Automation Tools

• Social Media Monitoring Tools

• Paid Advertising Tools

• Email Marketing Tools

• Display Retargeting Tools

• Website Testing Tools

• Video Hosting Tools

• Content Creation Tools

• Website Analytics Tools

• Search Engine Optimization Tools


The democracy in using these tools puts in your hands the needed resources to perform sales and marketing processes that were only accessible to big companies, so why not make full use of this privilege.
Digital Marketing Tools can help your business despite its size to lead more conversions, generate better revenue and facilitate your engagement with your target audience, potential customer and even your current customers especially if you select the proper tools to use with assigning their working module and the timeline for the operation.


But keep in mind that marketing can’t be played solo!


It is highly recommended nowadays for brands to focus on their core competencies and collaborate with professional and well-experience digital marketing agencies for a better return on investment.


Every party has its superpowers and special skills to add to the company. So collaborating on bases of shared responsibilities is the ideal solution, where missions will be divided between brand & agency in reference to what each party can handle more effectively.


So selecting the right tools & professional partner are part of the mission, whereas assigning the needed budget for each technology (tools), content (message) and ads (media spend) is the rest of the puzzle. Usually, 10% of revenue is the baseline number used for planning marketing, however, digital marketing isn’t one-size-fits-all, it depends on your industry, company size and history.


Version 7.8 Last Updated on 13 March 2020



TRAINING:



"How to effectively use the available tools to fulfill your goals?"



We are fast becoming a world economy based on the communication of information. Our great Information Age, also known as the Digital Age, is characterized by the ability of individuals to transfer and communicate information freely all over the digital platforms, and doing so is way different from face-to-face communication.


That’s why in order for you to effectively and clearly pass your company’s messages all over the digital tools you need to first know the fundamentals of using digital marketing tools.


As Keith Weed, the CMO at Unilever once said: "We have an entire generation of marketers who are faking it." There are plenty of marketers, but not enough marketers with digital skills and the ability to quickly assess changes in the marketing world, adjust and adapt.


That’s why “Training” was assigned as the 3rd pillar of digital marketing operations so amateur marketers can develop their performance, build up the digital skills & knowledge and transform businesses into a technology-enabled, high-performance, adaptive and agile learning organizations.


Training Program must be an ongoing process that refers to acquiring, applying and constantly updating the knowledge gained. But of course, training can’t produce results alone. There are other non-training factors that are requested from stakeholders after any training. They should encourage, reinforce and reward their employees for the gained knowledge and skills they are applying to their jobs. The main issue here is getting more managers to support the training program and more trainees to apply what they learned in order to get concrete and valuable results.


Version 7.8 Last Updated on 13 March 2020



TRACKING:



"Where to look to keep track of your route of progress to your ultimate goal?"


John Wanamaker (1838-1922) is credited with the saying “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half” While this was understandable a century ago when it was first said, it is a crime to say that today. Not measuring where your leads and sales come from and not tracking the return on investment in digital marketing operations is the mark of an amateur since what gets measured gets managed.


That's what triggered me to think about “Tracking” as the fourth pillar of the “4Ts” marketing concept, that will support your business in measuring results, modifying your future actions in order to fulfill your assigned goals smoothly.


According to a survey of senior marketing executives published with Harvard Business Review, “More than 80% of respondents were dissatisfied with their ability to measure marketing’s ROI”.


In order to have a well-formulated tracking operation, you should first select the noble tracking tools, assign your appropriate key performance indicators, define your KPI target numbers responsible for the coming phase success, make the needed corrections based on a frequent review of your tracking analytics in order to isolate the problems along the path toward your final intended destinations.


Version 7.8 Last Updated on 13 March 2020



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